The old and the new together at the Jiaxing train station by Mad Architects
Photo creatar. With the kind permission of MAD Architects
The Jiaxing train station by Ma Yansong and his company MAD Architects is a striking example of how contemporary infrastructure can harmonize with a historical context and natural environment. The project is located in Jiaxing in the province of Zhejiang, southwest of Shanghai, the traditional concept of a means of transport and combines progressive design with cultural sensitivity. The train station was designed as a “train station in the forest”, which contained a gently wavy roof that is covered with green, which seamlessly integrates into the surrounding parkland.
Under this green canopy there is a modern transport system that is equipped for high -speed railways and daily commuters. Above the original train station from 1907 was carefully reconstructed as a cultural landmark. MAD's design reflects Ma Yansong's persistent research into the principles “Shannhui City” that merge nature, urban space and emotional response. The design sank a large part of the functional infrastructure underground and releases the room on surface level for pedestrian access and public use and transforms the station into a bourgeois goal and not just a transit point. Jiaxing's train station not only improves connectivity, but also offers a vision of how architecture can promote a feeling of community and continuity with the past and at the same time comprises the future. Ma Yansong shares details about the project.
Why did you decide to build a 1: 1 replica of the historic station building while creating a new train station underground?
Transport is one of the keys that connects the entire system and have helped us develop the concept of a museum that is intervened after time. I want this place to be open to everyone and enable the public to fully deal with ecology and cultural content. The restoration of the historical building 1: 1 becomes a time museum, a conversation between the past and the future. The history of this 100 -year -old station is also the history and culture of this city. We have redefined the culture, subject history in such cases that symbolize the timeline of urban development and project the museum 100 years ago into an epitome of the old train station. This type of 1: 1 remnantement has equipped the architecture with its own history while respected history.
Jiaxing station is located under a huge green roof, the gentle hill echoes
Photo ac. With the kind permission of MAD
Tell me about the history of the Jiaxing station and how to establish old and new connection.
Jiaxing's train station was first built in 1907 and used in 1909. It was an important center of transport on the Shanghai Hangzhou line at this time. In 1921, when some delegates of the first national congress of the China Communist Party came to Jiaxing, the station became an important historical witness of the big meeting. But the station was later destroyed by the Japanese in 1937.
After the restoration, the old station house becomes the history museum of the Jiaxing station and will no longer take over the function of the main train house. The importance of this restoration is not in the restoration of the function, but in culture, whether it can trigger the emotional response of the people for the history of the place. In this sense, the restored station house is still “real”. It still has historical pictures and stories, and it is very important to me that these stories have a relationship with the new space.
The “floating” metal roof of the new train station is located right next to the restored station house. In order to reproduce the extent of the old station building, the entry/exit platform of the new building and the waiting hall was descended into the ground, with only one floor “faded”. The black bridge roof and the new silver platform form a continuous line that is a metaphor for the relationship between past and the future. In the underground of the station, I deliberately created a futuristic “time tunnel”.
Very often there are a limited concept for many traditional civilizations and stories in China, which often does not allow the past and the new. Sometimes we duplicate old things and develop a lot of false antiques. Like the old streets in so many cities that were supposed to release history, it turned out that they were repetitions everywhere. Today, passengers in the new waiting room at Jiaxing train station can look up to see the restored station house. The old and new station houses coexist.
Within the Floodlit Jiaxing train station
Photo aogvision. With the kind permission of MAD Architects
What is your definition of sustainability because the word “sustainability” has been overused and often “abused”?
There are two aspects for sustainability, one is data ecology in terms of energy savings. It's a fairly large number. The entire roof of the two station houses is covered with solar collectors. We basically developed architectures that generate electricity. The whole energy goes into the city's power grid and will supply the entire area, even the underground and landscape lighting. The other aspect I look at is sustainability in the cultural context, as it continues in the long term. Respect history and inheritance, but reactivate them with new strength. When we think about it, the life of a building comes from the depth of its culture or vitality. If we are preserving the cultural heritage that we protect today, architecture will be preserved in particular as material and to this day, as self -relieved human evidence that convey the striving for different periods in history, although they symbolize different materials and technologies of that time.
Do you think that the Jiaxing train station as a model for sustainable practices for other transport infrastructure all over the world can serve an impact on politics and change in industry standards?
I think most of the train stations in China are quite standardized and it is very difficult to be innovative with all restrictions. Innovation is beyond the reaction to an urban state. We have to understand that most similarities are particularly easy to replicate due to globalization or commercialization. For architecture such as offices, residential buildings, retail stores, airports and train stations, the uniqueness of such designs is quickly copied from one place to the other in the cities and countries despite the cultural sustainability and characteristics of various urban contexts. This type of architecture should be more cultural and with the unique features of the location in the period after the globalization of history, culture and vision. I think this is always what MAD is looking for and what we discover in every project: a new trip.